Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween . . . A Few Fun Facts

One serving of candy corns (about 30 pieces) has 140 calories, the equivalent of three miniature Hershey bars.

The National Confectioners Association reports that more than 35 million pounds of candy corn were manufactured in 2005, amounting to almost 9 billion kernels.

U.S. place names with a Halloween theme

Candy Town, Ohio

Cape Fear, North Carolina

Frankenstein, Missouri

Pumpkin Bend, Arkansas

Pumpkin Hollow, New York

Scary, West Virginia

Skull Creek, Nebraska

Spook City, Colorado

Tombstone, Arizona

Transylvania County, North Carolina

Witch Hazel, Oregon

The biggest pumpkin in the world tipped the scales at a whopping 1,810.5 pounds in Minnesota's Stillwater Harvest festival in October 2010. This beats the last giant pumpkin record of 1,725 pounds, weighed in October 2009 in the annual Ohio Valley Giant Pumpkin Growers weigh-off in Canton, Ohio.

The biggest pumpkin pie on record was 20 feet in diameter and weighed 3,699 pounds. It was baked by the New Breman Giant Pumpkin Growers in Ohio in 2010, breaking their own previous world's record of 2,020 pounds. The ginormous orange pie contained 1,212 pounds of pumpkin, 233 dozen eggs, 109 gallons of evaporated milk, 525 pounds of sugar, 7 pounds of salt, and 14.5 pounds of cinnamon.

Of all canned fruits and vegetables, pumpkin is the best source of vitamin A. Just a half-cup of the orange stuff has more than three times the recommended daily requirement.

The per person consumption of candy by Americans in 2010 was an astounding 24.7 pounds, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.